The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-02-25

paid liberal and Grover slight addi-
tional bounty to secure his personal
safety from the bullets Of his Southern
brethren, then engaged in a laudable ef-
fort as they termed it, TO destroy the old
Union founded by Washington and his
compatriots nearly century before, is
now occupying and dishononng by his
open hostility 10 the Union soldiers and
sympathy with the ex-rebels, the place
30 honorably flied by Washington and
Lincoln. And by his innumerable
vetoes of pension bills for the relief of
Union veterans and their needy widows
and ofisprings he has encouraged such
copperclad journals rs the Chicago Times
to indulge in such disreputable filings at
the veterans of the war as the following:
"Of the pension system the Chicago
Times says: cit implants in the bosom
Of society corroding vice, that, like
jealousy, doth make the meat IL feeds
on Bounties begat more bounties, and
pensions begat more pensions, and the
| spirit of demagogism in the giver begat
in the vitiated conscience of the recip-
lent the spirit of mendicancy, until 1t
seems to be considered by the Grand
/ Army patriots that pauperism is con-
dition of honor, and that il is the natural
right of an able-bodied citizen who
served some time in the army to be sub
sisted during the remainder of his days
upon the sweat and toll Of others"
The above is but mild sample of the
abusive comments made by the Times
upon the pension system and every lit
tie Tray, Blanche and sweetheart fol-
low the lead of the Chicago Presidential
mouth organ and repeat with such adj
ditional epithets of ridicule and con-
tempt of the vete rams on pension system
as their lesser intellects can suggest.
Here is sample from one of them:
Pumping up tears in behalf of the
deserving soldier is therefore entirely
out of place in this instance. The sol
der who lost little finger or contracted
a case of chronic stomachache in the
field can secure pension by applying
for it. All he need to do is TO ask and
he will receive"
! The old soldiers should know their
friends and it might be we'll to note the
difference between the views of Wash
Ington and Cleveland as to the value OF
their services to the country.
ION the 10Th day of January, ITS,
General Washington addressed a COM
mittee of Congress as follows:
Few men are capable OF making a
continual sacrifice Of all views of private
, interest or advantage 10 common good.
1t is in vain to exclaim against the de-
pravity of human nature on this account.
The fact is SO; the experience of every
. age and nation has proved it; and we
must, in great measure, change the
/, constitution of q man before we can
make it otherwise. No institution not
built on the presumptive truth of these
+ maxims can succeed. 1t il not
indeed consistent with reason or justice
to expect that one set Of men should
make a sacrifice of domestic ease and
happiness, encounter the rigors Of the
field, the perils and vicissitudes of war,
to obtain those blessings which every
citizen will enjoy with them without
, adequate compensation. 1t must also
be comfortless reflection to any man
that after he may have contributed to
securing the rights of his country, at the
risk of his life, there would be no provi-
sions made to prevent himselfand fami.
/ ihNikOhSC anu
wretchedness."
On the 18th of May following Congress
passed unanimously the following resell
utions:
RESOLVED, That all military officers COM
missioned by Congress, who are now, or
hereafter may be, in the service of the
United States, and shall continue there
in during the war, and not hold any Of
flee of profit under these States or any
of them, shall after the conclusion of the
war be entitled to receive annually for
the term of seven years, If they live 80
long, one-nalf of present pay Of such Of
ficers.
Resolved, unanimously, That every nom
commissioned officer and soldier. who
| enlisted or shah enlist into the service
of these States for or during the war,
and shall continue therein to the end
thereof, shall be entitled to receive q
further reward of $50 at the expiration
of the war. ..
On the oath day of August. 1880, the
half-pay system was extended to the
widows of all officers who had or should
thereafter die in the service, and on the
2lst day of October following it was ex-
tended for life to surviving officers.
Five years latter the half-pay system
was supplanted by full pay. Though
not regarded by the Acknowledgement
as pension this was really the begin
ming of the pension system, subsequent
ly were passed and designated as pen
sion acts. March IS, 1918, the following
act was passed:
| Sec. /. Be it enacted by the Senate
and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress
assembled, That every commissioned
clan, and private soldier, and all officers
in the hospital department and medical
staff who served in the war of the revo-
luton until the end thereof, or for the
term of nine months or longer, at any
period of the war of the Continental
establishment, and every commissioned
officer, non-commissioned officer, marin
er, or marine, who served for the same
time and for like time in the naval
service of the United States who is vet
q citizen of the United States, and who
is or hereafter by his reduced circum-
stances in life shall be in need of assist
ance from his country for support
shall receive pension from the United
| during life; if q non-commissioned Of
ficer, mariner, musician, marine, or pri-
vate soldier, S. per month for life.
Still later Congress testified their APP
probation of the value of the service of
the men who founded the Republic, as
Congress has from Lincoln's administra-
ton to that of Grover Cleveland honored
the men who saved it from destruction
by the friends and supporters Of Cleve-
land. To Cleveland and his satellites
belongs exclusively the ignominy of
casting eontumely and reproach upon the
Union veterans of 1861 to 1866, the
saviors OF the nation that Washington
founded. Many old soldiers, ignorant
of the past history of the great unknown,
are said to have voted for him. May
God have mercy on their souls, ifthey'll
do so no more.
The SOLDIERS FRIEND.
LEGISLATIVE MATTERS. |